BACKGROUND
Dengue virus is the most serious mosquito-borne viral threat to public health and no vaccines or antiviral therapies are approved for dengue fever. The tetravalent DENVax vaccine contains a molecularly characterised live attenuated dengue serotype-2 virus (DENVax-2) and three recombinant vaccine viruses expressing the prM and E structural genes… (More)

O'nyong nyong virus (ONNV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are two closely related alphaviruses with very different infection patterns in the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae. ONNV is the only alphavirus transmitted by anopheline mosquitoes, but specific molecular determinants of infection of this unique vector specificity remain unidentified. Fifteen distinct… (More)

BACKGROUND
We have developed a manufacturing strategy that can improve the safety and genetic stability of recombinant live-attenuated chimeric dengue vaccine (DENVax) viruses. These viruses, containing the pre-membrane (prM) and envelope (E) genes of dengue serotypes 1-4 in the replicative background of the attenuated dengue-2 PDK-53 vaccine virus… (More)

Using an infectious cDNA clone we engineered seven mutations in the putative heparan sulfate- and receptor-binding motifs of the envelope protein of dengue virus serotype 2, strain 16681. Four mutant viruses, KK122/123EE, E202K, G304K, and KKK305/307/310EEE, were recovered following transfection of C6/36 cells. A fifth mutant, KK291/295EE, was recovered… (More)

During the Ebola virus outbreak of 2013-2016, the Viral Special Pathogens Branch field laboratory in Sierra Leone tested approximately 26 000 specimens between August 2014 and October 2015. Analysis of the B2M endogenous control Ct values showed its utility in monitoring specimen quality, comparing results with different specimen types, and interpretation… (More)